1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a microscope apparatus.
2. Related Art
Microscope apparatuses capable of observing a magnified image of a fine specimen and recording the observation image as a picture or a video image have been used in a wide variety of fields such as biological fields or industrial fields. In the industrial fields, for example, the microscope apparatuses have been used for observing microstructures of a metal or used as an inspection apparatus in a process of manufacturing a semiconductor device or an LCD (liquid crystal display).
Since the microscope apparatus is used for the above-described various fields, in many cases, components thereof are configured as units, so that the microscope apparatus may be used in various uses according to a combination of the units.
Among the units, there are movable units which are electrically operated, such as an electric stage. Beside the electric stage, there are many units comprising the electric movable device. However, there are still a lot of units comprising a manual movable device.
In the microscope apparatus, in some cases, if the movable device is manipulated carelessly, the movable device could come into contact with other devices. Although the electric movable device can be operated by simple manipulation, even in the state where contact may occur if there is no method of preventing the contact, the electric movable device performs the associated operation as it is. Particularly, in an inverted microscope, since the objective lens is inserted into an aperture of the stage, it is difficult for a user to determine the occurrence of contact. If switching of the electric revolver is manipulated carelessly, the objective lens could come into contact with the specimen or the stage, so that the specimen or the objective lens may be damaged.
In order to solve this problem, there is disclosed a technique for a safe observation, which can be performed by rotating an electric revolver after recessing the position of a focusing device or a stage in the case of an objective lens potentially coming into contact with the stage. In this case, the potential contact can be determined by the information of the position of the focusing device and the stage obtained by tracing a rotation trajectory of the objective lens (refer to, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No 2007-286440).